Lots of people are getting excited about Adeptus Titanicus, but it sounds like GW is considering an unconventional starter box.

GW pulled the curtain back on the new Adeptus Titanicus at the recent Weekender in Nottingham. Attendees got to see gameplay mechanics, some mockup command cards, and get in a game with full sized 40K titans.

One of the big mysteries that came out of the event was differing reports of exactly what GW will be putting in the starter set.

Players came away with multiple stories.

Some talk of a boxed set with rules, terrain and everything you need to play – minus the titans.

Others said that GW is still undecided on exactly what should go into the boxed set.

Forge World in any case will be selling the new Adeptus Titanicus titans themselves.

The TITAN SIZED Question

So my question to you is:

As players what would you want to see?

OPTION A: A cheaper boxed set that comes with everything you need to play except titans. Then you buy them separately.

OPTION B: A more expensive boxed set that comes with everything you need to play and titans.

Pros & Cons

We’ve seen GW use both models in the past. The entire Forge World Horus Heresy Line is purchased a la carte. There is no “starter set” for 30K gaming. On the other hand, all of GW’s recent boardgame franchises like Blood Bowl are boxed with everything you need to play, with extra expansions waiting in the wings. Way back in 1988, the original Adeptus Titanicus game came with 6 plastic Warlords and a bunch of buildings.

Personally I think that separate titans outside of a starter box is a grave mistake. One that will severely limit the growth of any game. The ability to walk into a store, buy a single box, go home, and get hobbying/playing is a potent force. The more separate steps you require of a gamer, in turn limits the adoption rate of game. Now of course the flipside of this is how “mainstream” of a game GW wants Adeptus Titanicus to be. If they think the game is super niche with no plans to ever make titans in plastic – then a la carte purchases will probably do the trick for it’s limited audience. Of course this would be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

If GW really wants to push Adeptus Titanicus into a big mainstream product, the core titans (Warlords, Reavers, Warhounds, Knights) MUST be plastic. Resin for all it’s quality will never ever go mainstream; it’s too fiddly and beyond the hobby skills of newcomers.

I do think the game has the legs to be a winner – it’s a game of giant robots fighting each other – with the universal appeal for sci-fi gamers. It’s also a game that would be a great gateway drug into 40K/30K – and everyone loves that.

So here we all wait. I for one want to see Adeptus Titanicus grow and become the next Blood Bowl, not the next Aeronautica Imperialis.

You might also like:

I was there, at the seminar this was discussed. They said they didnt know what was going in the box as its still nearly a year off and the sculpts are only just finished the concept phase.

At no point did they say they would sell it without models. That is a complete lie. They might do, as they dont know what it will he like yet, but they definently never put it forward as a suggestion, as lets face it, its a stupid idea. They did however say they expected around £100 for the box, which sounds like a lot more than just rules and counters

orionburn

Hate to say it but this is just a slow news week so it’s a repost of basically the exact same article from a few months ago to stir the pot again.

My only real fear regardless of what comes in the box is the ease of access people will have to the models. I love me some Forge World, but for a lot of people the money spent in shipping & taxes makes it difficult to order on a regular basis. GW & FW really need to sort this out to make FW easier to acquire in the states and other parts of the world.

KingThrogg

Maybe they could get someone in China to make them?

Emprah

I think they should need to include at least 2 titans in it.

Knight_of_Infinite_Resignation

If they made the Titans plastic, with rules in the box, and offered pre-painted versions, this could be the game that wins back the X-Wing/Star Trek Attack Wing/Dropzone and Dropship Commander crowd. Could seriously be MASSIVE!

Indeed, they do need to tackle x-wing in particular. However I would say that at the scale they’re going for they will not achieve that. X-wing is great as you can play a full battle on an average sized dinner table. You could not do the same for large scaled titan battles. It’s my one issue with the sound of the new game

Karru

Also, there is no way GW could tackle X-wing. The largest reason why X-wing was so successful is purely based on the fact that it’s Star Wars game. Star Trek Attack Wing is extremely similar to X-wing and it went mostly under the radar when it was launched.

X-wing’s initial success was thanks to the name it has. Had it gotten any other name but kept the exact same gameplay, I bet that the game would have been forgotten a long time ago. Of course I won’t disagree with you on the size part. X-wing offers something very similar to what M:TG can do as well. It requires very small space to play and doesn’t really need terrain like most miniature games. It’s easy to pick up and introduce to new players.

GW will never beat that. Unfortunately GW is too narrow sighted when it comes to these things. Their idea is that everyone of their customers should and will buy large armies and wants to field large armies on amazing tables filled with terrain. I hope that with the success of Blood Bowl, they’ll start to consider more small scale options. Things that are easy to teach, don’t require really anything outside the starter set content and has multiple different options in terms of expanding the collection.

Could not agree with you more. It would be awesome if they started to do easy access small scale games, like bloodbowl, in the other universes. I often find that GW falters when it comes to rules. They’re often bloated and look up table heavy. Betrayal at Calth went someway with these issues but not fully.

Karru

I tend to find that they are unable to make the perfect balance between extremely simple and immensely complex. Take 40k and AoS for example. AoS ruleset is extremely minimalistic and sacrifices many mechanics in order to make a simple game that is easy to teach to just about anyone. Problem is that these sacrifices have to come from somewhere and this can make the game quite repetitive.

40k on the other hand is a complete mess. Having a complex ruleset that keeps getting more and more rules added to it making it nigh impossible to teach completely to new people.

Blood Bowl was amazing success because the rules are “perfect”. They are simple enough to get people interested and it offers a great deal of option in terms of variety. There are multiple teams, multiple ways to build your teams and boat load of strategies to use. It also requires very little room to play, as you mostly only need room for your gaming board.

Problem is, they just basically used the old rules to accomplish this. I remember the design team talking about it and saying they did very little to it. They just fixed some problems that had been present and added some optional stuff to it.

The reason why it is a problem is that it doesn’t guarantee that their design team can create something similar and new at the same time. I just hope that they can, it’s not the same team that works on 40k or AoS, so there is hope.

elwin charpentier

Alessio Cavatore did a great job in my opinion with Lotr – I was surprised at first sight, but on the table it was quite efficient and more subtle than i thought. Others systems are heirs of the 80’s – and their flaws.

Severius_Tolluck

Which he and Rick repeated with Bolt Action as that flows pretty smooth. Easy to learn, hard to master!

Christopher Witecki

What you’re describing is literally Epic 6mm. It plays perfect on 3×3. I agree completely. GW needs to use small scale options to hook in new comers who eventually just collect enough to play larger games. Larger games should be the unlock option, not the entrance fee! All they had to do was make Epic 6mm plastic and they’d solve all their problems. But nope, let’s be smart and change scales invalidating a growing market and 20 years of existing classic models.

Severius_Tolluck

You mean like it had when it was based off world war 1 fighter planes? Can you recall Wings of Glory, or wings of war? Or sails of glory? How about DnD Dragon wing? Heck even tails and feathers which is a mice and mystics clone? Heck even GW had a swing at the same system with Aeronautica! This engine has gone around the block, it’s the town bicycle. The Star Wars is what made it really do well, plus FFG did a good job on the prepaints as they look appealing vs many of the competitors.

Indeed its why I am kinda hoping they’ll release the rules on their own. I am learning how to manufacture my own miniatures – advantage of being an engineer geek – and making prototypes of my own Titans. 6mm scale but more akin to the FW ones. making the arms so they accept magnets so all weapons will be interchangeable. If GW had done something similar it would have been awesome. 3×3 table is ideal for quick battles. I lament the change in scale 🙁

Knight_of_Infinite_Resignation

That sounds cool. Scale change is obviously to devalue all the old inventory on ebay. I guess they might be trying to poach DZC players who have 10mm terrain already.

Those who left GW behind for good wouldn’t come back for an overpriced rehash of their old game that was ditched becuase reasons and kept alive by fans and 3rd party manufacturers.

Knight_of_Infinite_Resignation

A lot of people like X-Wing because it has a low model count, simple rules, prepainted figures and small playing area. they didn’t specifically leave GW, they just found a game that suited them better. X-Wing is just more adapted to modern life than most GW games.

A.Titanicus could fill this niche if GW wanted.

Boondox

Pre-painted versions? Heresy.

Talos2

For obvious reasons I wouldn’t be amazed if they did it with gothic when they finally get round to it

Knight_of_Infinite_Resignation

These are the two systems it would make sense for.

Knight_of_Infinite_Resignation

I know, but GW should do it for commercial reasons.

Christopher Witecki

Well except for the years of drama caused by the unasked for scale change. Also the fact that existing Epic players will have whole armies in a different scale. Going to be fun times telling people in GW that I can’t tell them where I got my Necron army.

Duke_Leto

As someone who doesn’t play but loves the fluff I REALLY hope you can buy the book separately? I did hear that the book will be in the same format as the HH Big Black Books…which would excellent for me (though can’t see how that could be included in a box?)

rtheom

They could easily do a paperback print with just the rules and basic titan sheets for the starter, and then the hardcover big black book has that plus extra fluff, or something along those lines. That’s basically what they do for the 40K rulebook, although it is chopped up into 3 books now.

Yeah I love all the fluff too 🙂 Got a hold of the Titan Legions recently for the fluff content

sonny2dap .

can’t see a release sans models, if this was being sold by forgeworld alone as a separate book with rules then yeah, but being sold in GW stores I would suggest means models.

Recalcitrant Daze

Nothing has been decided.

There has been talk for a while of a model free box (containing the rules, counters, terrain etc). This would likely see it aimed squarely at ‘Veterans’ (like the HH range itself was originally). In which case we will get separate resin titans.

If GW decide to go down the Blood Bowl route and have it in stores, at least for the initial release, then we could be looking at a starter including plastic titans.

However we are basically a year away so anything could change.

edendil

I’ll be in to it all the way, either way. So it makes no difference to me.
But from a commercial perspective, a full box set including plastic minis seems like a better way to go.

Shinnentai

I’m really liking the direction they’ve taken the rules on this one, and I can even appreciate the upscaling of the models, but it’s disappointing that GW don’t seem to want to put more resources into making this a big hit.

Drpx

I hope they have the sense to make this epic scale instead of seriously expecting people to go buy Warhounds and Reaver titans.

Horus84cmd

What are you on about?

The use of the 40K scale Titans was for the FW event to purely demo the game!

At that same even and, I believe, two others they have been showing off 8mm scale models. So alot smaller than 28mm 40K and slightly bigger than the original Titanicus, which were 6mm scale.

Recalcitrant Daze

They haven’t shown any models yet, but the new scale is planned as 8mm.

Horus84cmd

Really now, have they not? …besides the 8mm mock up models they have shown…

No, they haven’t. That is the 6mm scale version the sculptor printed for the fun of it and was shown when the Warlord was released at the Forge World Open Day (from what I remember, I was there). AT was announced at Warhammer Fest last year (again, I know as I was there) They have not shown any 8mm models.

Ebsolom

That would be like buying a bicycle without the wheels.

Christopher Witecki

Glad to hear it. This insult to Epic players can launch and fail promptly. Then they can leave epic model.making to those interested and competent in it.

Chet Atkinson

After seeing the rising number of complaints at FW about poor production quality I would hesitate at buying a set with resin models in it. If there were no plastic versions I would prefer a rules and fluff box set and just use my ol Epic ones

Talos2

One guy asked “are the models going to be plastic or resin” to which tony cottrell replied “yes”. So if they haven’t even decided that yet I’m guessing it’s a decision that will come before what is in the box

benn grimm

Lol, how is this even a question?

Papist00000001

How big are the Titans supposed to be?

Noah Jerge

They might be doing this so that people who have the old epic kits could use those instead.

effinger2

I have 4 fully painted ones from the old game and ready to go.

Graham Roden

If I’m absolutely honest I’d like to see it come with a few plastic titans. A couple or warlords and 4 reavers would be nice. Releasing a basic game minus miniatures is unlikely to work, even putting cardboard ones in would feel cheap and nasty.

Donald Wendt

Star Wars Armada didn’t have the Imperial Star Destroyer in the starter set…and it didn’t get released until (iirc) a full year later. Nobody seems to be playing it, either.